Robert Horton, Writing About Film

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About This Site

The Crop Duster has two goals. One is to organize links to my critical work: reviews written for The Herald (Everett, Washington) and Seattle Weekly; and public appearances and TV jobs. Selected past work for Film Comment and elsewhere is also linkified. You may also link to my website of 1980s reviews and learn more about my book on Frankenstein and my graphic novel, ROTTEN.

The second goal is to keep a daily record of films watched, annotated with brisk, brief comments. It's a slightly more advanced version of the movie list I kept, in Flair pen, thumbtacked next to my bed when I was twelve.

Pages

Escape Plan (Mikael Håfström, 2013). Yes, we are now at the point of cheering a base level of competence. Which is indeed on view in this action flick, a teaming of the 80s muscle boys in a tricksy prison picture. Stallone continues to look very peculiar indeed, which makes Schwarzenegger (in a pleasingly canny performance) come off rather well by comparison. (full review 10/18)

Tonight, October 16, join me for “End of the Trail: How the Western Movie Rode Into the Sunset,” a talk presented by the Snohomish County Arts Commission, 7 p.m., at the Cole Gallery in Edmonds, WA. More info here.